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Liz spent the rest of Friday at the computer, looking up old newspaper stories. According to the articles, Abraham Moss was a black janitor at Los Angeles County Hospital. In September of 1941, police investigating the murder of a white prostitute by the name of Charmaine Tyree, found a witness who had seen someone matching Moss’s description going into the woman’s house around the time of the murder. Moss confessed to killing her when questioned by the police.
Ellen Goodman’s name came up when it was revealed Charmaine Tyree had just given birth to a baby boy. Moss claimed he took the baby to an intern he knew at the hospital and asked her to take care of the baby. The intern was Ellen Goodman.
Liz was not sure how this related to the suspicions of Ellen’s family that she had been pregnant the previous Christmas. If that were true, then the timing would have been about right for that baby to be hers. But if so, how did Abraham Moss and Charmaine Tyree tie into it? The only mention of what happened to the baby in question was one line saying he was in the custody of Child Welfare Services. If that were Goodman’s baby, why would she allow him to be taken away?
There was no trial, because Moss confessed and waived his right to a trial. There was a sentencing hearing, however. One of the people who testified was a man who claimed that about a year earlier he, his son, and a friend had come across Abraham Moss attacking a white woman in an alley. He claimed that when they tried to intervene, Moss became enraged and viciously attacked them. It seemed to point to a pattern of violent behavior consistent with the murder. Charmaine Tyree had been viciously stabbed more than 20 times and her body thrown in the river.
There were a few pictures of Moss and his attorney, John Martin. Moss was handsome, a big man. He looked like someone who could do a lot of damage if he were angry. Martin looked like a lawyer, studious, serious, with his wire-framed glasses, and crisp suit. She did a search of the lawyer and discovered he had opened his office in Los Angeles in 1940. At the time, there were few black lawyers in the state. She was surprised to learn that he was still alive and 100 years old. She found a quote from an interview he had done recently, so he must still be active and alert.
Liz found him listed in the phone directory for Los Angeles and the surrounding areas. She dialed the number on a whim, thinking maybe a nurse or caretaker would answer and run interference. However, Martin himself answered on the third ring. Liz introduced herself.
“Well now,” Martin said in a voice that was strong despite a slight quaver. “What can I do for the Fresno Police Department?”
“Mr. Martin, I would like to talk to you about an old case of yours. It may or may not be relevant to a case I am investigating.”
“What case would that be?”
“Abraham Moss. Back in 1941... do you remember him?”
“Abraham Moss,” he said slowly. “Yes, of course I remember him. How is he relevant to your case?”
“He may not be. But my case concerns someone who was peripherally connected to that one... Dr. Ellen Goodman.”
“Ellen Goodman....” He gave a snort of derision. “Peripherally connected? So what is she up to now, that has the police involved?”
“A baby-selling racket.”
“Baby-selling... why am I not surprised? I’ll tell you what, Detective... you come on down here in person and I’ll tell you everything I know about Ellen Goodman. I’ve got too much to say to do it over the phone.”
Liz was surprised at his quick offer of information. She thought quickly about her plans for the weekend.
“All right, I’ll drive down tomorrow, if that’s OK.”
“Fine by me.”
He gave her the address and directions. Liz considered asking Sarge for permission to go, but decided against it. It was a weekend, meaning it would be overtime for her, plus the mileage to drive there and back. Better to request reimbursement later and if it was refused, she didn’t care. She was curious and wanted to talk to the lawyer. It sounded like she had found the first person who was not going to tell her what a wonderful person Ellen Goodman was.
Liz told Steve where she was going and declined his offer to go with her. She wanted the time alone in the car on the drive back to process whatever information John Martin gave her. She was up and on the road by six the next morning. She dressed comfortably in black jeans with black low-heeled shoes. She dressed it up with a long-sleeved white shirt and maroon blazer. She clipped her badge to the pocket of the blazer, but locked her gun in the glove compartment. She stopped in Bakersfield for breakfast and made periodic stops to use the bathroom and stretch her legs. She pulled into Martin’s driveway just before 10 a.m..
She was not sure what she had expected from a 100 year old man, but it certainly was not the spry man serving coffee to her in his living room. He seemed to have shrunk since the days the pictures in the newspaper were taken, as seemed to happen so often with age. He was thinner and appeared shorter because of a slight stoop. He used a cane to walk, but seemed to have no difficulty getting in and out of chairs. Once they both had a cup of coffee, he sat back and gave Liz his full attention.
“I take it that Ellen is still alive, though she isn’t much younger than I am, as I recall. How is the old girl?”
“She's 97 and suffers from COPD. She says her lungs are bad and that she doesn’t expect to reach 98.”
“I see. What is it you want to know about her,” he asked.
“Well, for starters... what was her relationship to Abraham Moss? Why would he take the child of a woman he had just murdered to her?”
“They were lovers.”
Liz looked at him in surprise. “Really? The newspaper reports didn’t say anything about that.”
“No, they didn’t know. Abraham and Ellen kept it pretty quiet; not too many people knew about them.”
“OK, then let me ask you this: I talked to Goodman’s niece and nephew and they said that the Christmas before all of this happened, she came home for the holidays and was very sick. They said the family suspected she was pregnant at the time, but never asked her about it. Then in September, she sent them a letter saying she was adopting this baby boy. Was that baby hers and Abraham’s?”
Martin shook his head. “No, the baby really was Charmaine Tyree’s. But Ellen’s family wasn’t wrong about her... she was pregnant the previous Christmas.”
“What happened to that baby and what did it have to do with the murdered woman?”
He set his coffee cup on the table and sat back. “Abraham and Ellen had known each other for years. He was a janitor at Los Angeles County Hospital and she was a medical student there and then an intern. They became lovers. When Ellen found out that she was pregnant, they didn’t have many options. They wanted to get married, but they couldn’t because it was illegal.”
“It was? I didn’t know we had laws against interracial marriage in California.”
“Oh yes. It was overturned in 1948 when the California Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional.”
“I had no idea things were like that here,” Liz mused.
“Back then I couldn’t even join the California Bar Association. It had a ‘whites only’ clause. No firms would hire black lawyers; we all had to open our own offices. One of the cases a friend of mine defended back in the forties was a group of black deputies with the LA Sheriff’s Department. They had made an arrest while off-duty and they were arrested for carrying guns.”
“They weren’t allowed to carry guns off duty?”
“Detective, black deputies weren't allowed to carry guns while on duty.”
Liz shook her head in disbelief. “I had no idea,” she said. “But I interrupted your story. So they couldn’t get married... what did they decide to do?”
“Ellen would have never been able to get a job or be accepted in white society with an illegitimate half-Negro child. They decided the best thing they could do for the baby would be for him to be adopted by a black couple. That’s when they came to me.”
“You? So you arranged the adoption?”
“That was the plan, but I have to say that Ellen was not happy about it. She sat in my office and cried and cried before she finally signed the papers. She did her best to hide her pregnancy from everyone and I had a couple willing to take the baby, but unfortunately it wasn’t possible.”
“What happened?”
“While she was visiting Abraham one day, she went into labor early. Abraham got her to a doctor’s office, but there wasn't anything they could do to stop it. Today, they might have saved him. But back then... ”
“So it died?”
Martin nodded. “It was a boy and he was born alive, but he died within a couple of hours. Ellen almost died, too. She was bleeding and the doctor couldn’t stop it. They got her to a hospital and she had to have surgery. I believe she was not able to have any children after that.”
Liz was taking notes and she stopped to look them over. “Well, OK... I see where the whole adoption thing and helping girls who are pregnant and can’t keep their babies might come from her experience. But how does any of this tie into Charmaine Tyree’s murder?”
“That depends. There’s the story that Abraham told the police. There’s the story he told me. And then there is what I believe actually happened.”
“I know the story he told police... that was in the newspapers. He said he was a customer of Charmaine’s and she tried to cheat him and he lost his temper and killed her. Then he realized she had this baby and he took him to Goodman and asked her to take care of him.” Liz looked at Martin. “So what did he tell you?”
“You have to know that Abraham loved Ellen. He loved her so completely and totally that I think he would have done anything for her. I think she loved him, too, but not with the same selflessness. Abraham told me that after she lost the baby, Ellen was so grief-stricken and despondent that he became truly worried about her. She had taken some time off after her surgery, telling the hospital she had some family emergency. But even when she went back to work, she was so depressed that sometimes she called in sick because she couldn’t stop crying. Abraham was really afraid she might try to commit suicide.
“Then she met Charmaine. She took care of her at the hospital when Charmaine had the baby. It was born prematurely, although not as early as hers had been. He was small and needed extra care. Suddenly, Ellen was obsessed about this woman and her baby. Abraham said she would rant on and on about how God hated her and had taken her child, but this prostitute had a live baby. She didn't even know who the father was and wasn't able to take care of him. Finally, she was so crazy with grief and rage over it all, Abraham said he took his brother’s truck and went to Charmaine’s to get the boy. He said he killed Charmaine and drove her body up to the hills and dumped her behind the HOLLYWOODLAND’ sign. Then he took the baby to Ellen. But he said he warned her that if anything went wrong, she was to go along with whatever story he told.”
“Hollywood... ‘land’,” Liz asked.
“That’s what the original sign said. It was put up to advertise a housing development up there. Some of the letters in ‘land’ were damaged... by Charmaine Tyree’s body slamming into them.”
“You’re kidding!”
“No, not at all. The ‘land’ was taken out and wasn’t replaced because the city council felt it should reflect the city and not one housing development.”
“Unbelievable,” Liz said, shaking her head. “So he made up the other story to protect Goodman and keep her from being tainted by all of it?”
“That’s what he said. He wouldn’t let me plead not guilty or go to trial.”
“You mentioned what you believe actually happened,” Liz said. “So you don’t believe the story Abraham told you?”
“No, I don’t.”
“What do you think happened?”
Martin leaned forward as he looked her in the eye. “I think Goodman killed Charmaine and took her baby. I think Abraham was either there or found out about it soon after, and went there to dispose of her body.”
“And then took the blame for it? You think he loved her that much... that he would help her get away with murder?”
“I do.”
“There’s something I don’t understand. Since Abraham Moss confessed, why was he given the death penalty, instead of life in prison?”
“The judge said it was because of the brutal nature of the crime, and because he had a ‘history of violence toward white women.’ The truth of the matter is that he was a black man who murdered a white woman... that was all anyone cared about.”
“What about that claim that he had a history of violence? There was a man who testified at the sentencing hearing, right? He said he and his friends saw Abraham attacking a white woman and then he attacked them?”
Martin shook his head. “According to Abraham, the woman in question was Ellen, and the men attacked them. They had seen them eating together in a diner and they followed them and dragged them into an alley. Two of them started beating Abraham and then they tried to rape Ellen. Abraham was able to fight them off and get Ellen out of there.”
“Why didn’t you put Ellen on the stand to refute the man’s story?”
“Abraham wouldn’t let me. He tied my hands and all I could do was watch helplessly while he was convicted of murder.”
“But... Abraham Moss was executed.”
“I know,” he said sadly. “I was there when he died.”
“B... but... ” Liz sputtered with outrage. “If Goodman was so much in love with him, why would she stay quiet and let him go to the gas chamber for a crime she committed?”
“I’m afraid you'll have to ask Ellen Goodman that question. But if you ask me if I think she’s capable of selling newborn infants to the highest bidder, I’ll tell you that I think she's capable of much worse than that.”
They sat in silence for several minutes as Liz absorbed the information.
“Mr. Martin, why are you telling me all of this? Abraham Moss was your client. Aren’t you violating client-attorney privilege?”
John Martin sighed and sat back, looking at Liz thoughtfully.
“I’m 100 years old,” he said. “Abraham died almost 70 years ago, most likely for a crime he didn’t commit. You tell me Ellen is probably dying now, too. I think it’s time for Abraham’s story to be told.” He gave her a sad smile. “Unfortunately, the only one who knows the real story is Ellen Goodman and she isn’t likely to tell the truth.”
“Well,” she said slowly. “I don’t know if any of this has any bearing on my investigation, but you can be sure I will ask her about it. If nothing else, maybe it will shake her up.”
“Ask her one more thing, while you’re at it.”
“What’s that?”
“Ask her what happened to Janet Moss.”
“Who is Janet Moss?”
“Abraham’s sister. He had three sisters and a brother. Janet worked as a maid for a white family, just like their mother did. After Abraham was in prison, waiting to be executed, Orly found out that Janet’s employer had raped her and for a couple of years had been forcing her to have sex with him. He threatened not only to fire her, but to report her to the police for stealing from him if she didn’t. When Orly found out, she wanted to get Janet out there, as far away from that man as she could. Orly didn’t know the whole story about what happened with Abraham and Charmaine, but she never did believe her son could murder anyone. She thought Ellen knew more than she was saying, so she didn’t have any use for Ellen. But when Abraham found out what was going on, he wanted her to send Janet to Ellen in Fresno. He even wrote to Ellen... the only time he ever wrote to her from prison... and asked her to take care of his baby sister.”
“So did she agree?”
“She did. Janet didn’t want to go, and her mother, Orly, didn’t want to send her there, but they didn’t have anywhere else to send her. Ellen sent the money for a bus ticket, let her stay with her, and even got her a job taking care of kids whose mothers were working in the war factories.”
“What happened?”
“No one knows... except maybe Ellen. Janet got there and she started working. She wrote letters to her mother every week. But after about six months, the letters stopped. Orly kept writing to her, but the letters were returned. Then she wrote to Ellen, asking why Janet wasn’t writing to her anymore. Ellen wrote back that Janet had packed her bags and left. Orly came to me and I called Ellen at the doctor’s off ice where she was working. She told me the same thing. Janet said she didn’t want to stay there any longer and packed her bags and left. She said she assumed she had gotten a bus back to LA.”
“Janet just disappeared?”
“Into thin air,” Martin replied. “I called the police station there in Fresno and they said they went out and talked to Ellen. They even said they looked in the house, but all of Janet’s things were gone. No one was going to waste much time looking for a missing colored girl back then. Janet was never seen or heard from again.”
“What do you think happened to her?”
“I think Ellen killed her and disposed of the body.”
“I understand if she killed Charmaine Tyree. But, why would she have killed Janet Moss?”
“I have no idea,” he said. “But I'd love to be there when you ask her.”